QuestionQUESTION: I ride a '91 FXSTC but haven't been making any trips of more than 10 or 15 minutes and may even not run it for a week. It often would not have enough juice to give the starter more than a couple of slow revs. If I recharge the battery, she fires right up but after a few days the charge is no longer adequate to start.
Suspecting a leak to ground, I disconnected my ground cable and did a voltage check from Battery Neg. to Ground. With the ignition and all other switches off, I get a reading of 0.62 volts. Is this normal or do I have a short? I tried checking for continuity from Pos. to Ground and I thought I saw a reading of 1800 to 1900 on the 2000 K Ohm scale but this was only on that highest scale and when I reversed polarity on the test leads there was no reading and could no longer get any reading when I went back to recheck this.
Do I have a problem that needs fixin', or do I just need to give this Beautiful Machine a bit more exercise?
ANSWER: Start the bike and at 2000 RPM what volage are you showing at the battery?
Mike
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QUESTION: OK Mike, but I had to estimate on the RPM since I don't have a tachometer. Looks to me like it's putting out just over 14.3 Volts. This reading seems constant from a very fast idle speed up to a cruising speed probably in excess of 3000 RPM.
Does this effect the continuity to ground while the engine is not running?
Art
ANSWER: I wanted to make sure your battery was charging fully when the bike was running. the 10-15 minutes is a short time to charge the battery. The other thing it might be is a leak battery. You can get it load tested and see how it holds a charge.
Good luck and happy riding
Mike
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QUESTION: Thanks, Mike; but I still don't know if it's normal to have a minimal (only about half a volt) amount of leakage from positive to ground. When I checked this a couple of days ago this was 0.62 volts and today it's showing 0.44 volts. This is measured from the Bat. Neg. (disconnected) to Ground. I've checked and rechecked for continunity from Posative to Ground and I'm still showing nothing. This test was made with all the resistance scales (highest is R x 2000K ohm) on my meter, and switching the test leads to reverse polarity.
AnswerLike I said before, you need to get the battery tested. It might be the battery that is leaking down. A bad battery will slowly loose voltage. The only other way you would lose voltage is if somthing is turned on or is using power
Good luck and happy riding
Mike
